It’s an exaggeration to say Troy Polamalu freelanced all the time, or really at all, but it’s fair to say what the coaches called for wasn’t always what Polamalu actually carried out. Sitting down on a panel hosted by Steve Wyche, then-head coach Bill Cowher told a classic story of how ‘Polamalu Plans’ worked.
It came early in his career when the Steelers were facing the Bengals and Carson Palmer, who Troy roomed with at USC. Here’s how Cowher tells it.
“We’re calling Cover 2. And we know Cover 2, we’re going to make it look like Cover 3.